


Lord of Sea and Sky

by ForgingOurDestiny



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: A little bit of violence, A lot - Freeform, Animals like Merlin, BAMF Merlin (Merlin), Gen, Seriously how does Arthur not have brain damage?, Tiny bit of a magic reveal, nothing too severe, unconscious!Arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgingOurDestiny/pseuds/ForgingOurDestiny
Summary: Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. That is to say, it had gone to shit.Once again, a simple patrol goes horribly wrong, but this time the consequences may turn out to be far more serious than anticipated...
Relationships: Knights of the Round Table & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 119





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is what I was trying to write when I wrote Kin. The idea came from one of my personal headcannons, that as Merlin is magic, he should have a connection of some kind with every magical creature. So, that's what spawned this particular plot bunny.
> 
> The title is from a hymn called “Here I am, Lord” and I think that the lyrics fit what I was trying to go for.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading my rambling mess, and I hope you enjoy!

Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. That is to say, it had gone to shit.

It had started out well enough, just a normal patrol where everything was safe and as close to normal as possible. Merlin’s horse seemed to be jumpier than normal, and his stomach just wouldn’t settle, but what can you do? It was then that everything went to shit.

A man jumped out in front of Arthur’s mare, spooking her, causing Arthur to be tossed off. He hit a tree and was knocked out before Merlin was able to even think of intervening. At least this way he was out of danger… probably.

Merlin, in the middle of the group, launched himself off of his horse in order to hide. At least this way he was harder to notice and out of the way if the knights were able to handle this situation themselves.

The knights dismounted with far more grace than Merlin, Leon and Lancelot went over to protect their fallen King, whilst Gwaine, Percival and Elyan formed a semi-circle around the man that had appeared. He didn’t look shocked to have found them there, and the way that he looked at Arthur caused the hair at the base of Merlin’s neck to stand on end.

The man looked to have backed himself into a corner, taking a step back for every step the knights took forward. A thick blanket of foliage was at his back, making it seem as if he had nowhere to turn to. The knights seemed to become more confident; the person who had appeared out of nowhere was surrounded with no place to go. Merlin knew better.

A smirk appeared on the man’s face as he raised his hand towards the knights and his eyes glowed gold. Gwaine and Elyan went flying out into the trees around them whilst Percival’s mountain of a body skidded towards Leon and Lancelot where Arthur was (still) unconscious. Honestly, with the amount of times he got knocked out, it was a miracle he didn’t have permanent brain damage.

Leon drew his sword and approached the man, _sorcerer_ , but with another flick of his hand and a flash of gold, Leon crumpled to the floor. A wave of fear coursed through Merlin, only abating when he saw that Leon’s chest still moved with the rise and fall of breath.

With Lancelot being the only one conscious, Merlin had no more qualms about using magic to deal with this new disruption on, what had appeared to be, the first peaceful day he had had in a while.

However, it seemed that Merlin had hesitated for too long. The man advanced on Arthur, knocking Lancelot aside with a twitch of his fingers. He drew a dagger and pulled it up over Arthur’s chest, readying himself to plunge it in.

He was too far away; he wouldn’t be able to reach him in time. A growl tore itself from Merlin’s lips and he stalked out form where he had hidden himself away. He felt his eyes glow, and his fingers tingled with magic that was itching to be released. He felt powerful and it must not be just him that could feel it. He wondered what would respond if he called for help…

~*~

Lucan had paused in attempting to disembowel the king sprawled on the forest floor before him, instead turning to face the growling creature behind him. He blanched once he properly took in the sight.

A man covered in mud, twigs, and dead leaves was hunched over, as if he were preparing to pounce. His clothes were shabby, looking to be those of a servant. Lucan would have wondered why he was there if the glowing golden eyes hadn’t distracted him first. He threw back his head and the sound a wounded animal might make came from his mouth. He could hear the pain and anguish contained within. Lucan flicked his hand to knock him unconscious as he had the others, but nothing happened.

The man cocked his head and let out another pained yowl, and the leaves behind him moved. The ruckus that Lucan’s confrontation with the King and knights caused should have scared off any creature for miles. If it had, what the hell was making the leaves move?

A wicked wind whirled up around them, carelessly flinging leaves and branches aside. From behind the disheveled man, creatures of all kind came forth. Deer, rabbits, foxes, badgers, wolves, bears, and kites alike were aplenty, and, further back, Lucan could see griffins, chimeras, unicorns and pegasi, and so many more creatures he couldn’t even name.

He looked back to the man in the centre of it all. He looked calm, totally at ease, and Lucan wondered if he were even human; he looked to be more like a forest spirit than anything else. It was at this point that Lucan realised he had long ago dropped his dagger.

“You have harmed our kin, and for this you shall pay dearly. You have offended Magic itself and have disrupted the balance.” The man before Lucan was opening his mouth as if he were saying the words, but they echoed everywhere, and Lucan could hear the voices of thousands repeating the words along with him.

“You have displeased Emrys. I suggest you run.”

The advice seemed sound, and so Lucan ran as if the hounds of hell were chasing after him.

~*~

With a tilt of his head, Merlin sent all manner of beast after their attacker. He straightened up and dropped the wind he had summoned, brushing dirt and debris from himself. He dismissed the animals that hadn’t run off after the man and bowed to the beasts who had answered his call as a show of his gratitude.

He could feel his eyes were still golden, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. Everyone was unconscious anyway, so what did it matter?

He approached Arthur’s prone form but was distracted by the man’s dagger beside him. The dagger was clearly well-cared for, with a smooth handle and the blade sharpened to a fine point. The blade was unlike any metal he had ever seen; it looked like it had a grain running down it, akin to wood. It was white and although it had some weight to it, it looked to be rather brittle. When Merlin realised that the blade was bone, he went to cast it aside in disgust, only stopping when he saw the miniscule runes etched into the edge of the blade.

The runes looked familiar to some he had studied previously, but without knowing exactly what they were, Merlin could only get a rough understanding of what they were meant to do. It seemed that a part of the blade was supposed to chip off when it was pulled out, the runes on that part of the blade making it so that the blood would be unable clot, forcing the victim to bleed out.

Merlin thanked the gods that he had managed to intervene in time; he doubted he’d ever have been able to connect profuse bleeding to a shard of knife being stuck in the wound.

He tucked the knife into a pocket in his jacket, a keepsake that he and Gaius could examine later, and turned his attention to Arthur. He was curled in on himself, chin tucked to his chest, hiding his face from Merlin’s view.

Merlin grabbed his bag from where he had left it and retrieved the bandages he had placed within, always preparing for the worst.

He turned back around and locked eyes with Arthur. Arthur, who looked ever so slightly disoriented but focused on the present none the less. Arthur, whose eyes darted to where Merlin had stashed the knife and then back up to his eyes. Arthur, who seemed completely aware, far too aware for someone who should have only just woken up.

Merlin went to walk towards him, only to have Arthur flinch backwards, curling in on himself again, as if to shield himself from attack… or from Merlin.

This wasn’t terribly good.

One could even say it wasn’t good at all.

Fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur wakes and we get to see his view of what happened in Chapter 1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my muse is constantly on sugar high, because she pops into my head every five minutes with a vague idea of a story, before popping off and leaving me to deal with the mess she handed me. This took way longer to get out than it should have, and I'm so sorry to have left everyone waiting for so long... It's longer than the last chapter so maybe that'll make up for the long wait (and cliffhanger... who said that?).
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and don't get too upset with me. :D

Arthur woke to a low growl battling with the ringing in his ears. The back of his head felt tender and whenever he tried to move, a sharp pain travelled up his back. All bad signs on their own and together they downright concerning. At least he was conscious, he could rest and heal up once he figured out what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was riding along a path with his knights (and Merlin), joking and revelling in the calm the last few weeks had provided, a welcome respite from assassination attempts and having to fend off Morgana’s cronies. He had been chatting with Leon who had been riding up front with him, and the next thing he knew, he was flying through the air. He flew; he might have even enjoyed it if he hadn’t known what was coming next. His flight finished as suddenly as it had begun, and the world faded to black with the sounds of shouts filling his ears.

He was sure it had been midday when he was last conscious, but the world beyond his eyelids was dark, perhaps he had been dead to the world for longer than he had thought and had slept till dusk. Head injuries tended to do that to him.

Apparently, God wasn’t merciful after all, as the world seemed to move, and the Sun’s rays speared his eyes. The low growl that had woken him had changed, gotten stronger, louder (it had certainly beaten the ringing in his ears into submission), and had begun to take on the shape of words.

Truthfully, Arthur wasn’t all that concerned by the growling occurring in front of him. It gave him a peculiar sort of calm, safe sensation, like the obvious aggression wasn’t directed _at_ him, but was there _for_ him. Even in his (probably concussed) state, he was able to recognise that if the voice did wish to harm him, it wasn’t like he could do a lot to stop it. Maybe he was in shock, or simply delusional; stranger things had happened.

Finally, some of the words seemed to reach the still-functioning part of his mind, “… for this… pay dearly… offended Magic… the balance…” They seemed to echo, as if they were everywhere at once, although that could just be the concussion.

Offending Magic didn’t seem like something Arthur wanted to do, but he probably had at some point, whether by following his father’s orders like a faithful lapdog or of his own volition, and it seemed that finally something was here to make him pay for his crimes. At least this way, there would be an end to his pain. He hoped Morgana would be a good queen to his people and didn’t let her anger and pain rule her as it had their father. He hoped that she would forgive Camelot for all it had done to her, and, maybe, by extension, him.

There was a rustling sound from in front of him, and when death didn’t immediately follow, he cracked open an eye. Most of his vision was obscured by a blob of brown and navy blue directly in front of him, and his vision constantly shifting in and out of focus wasn’t really helping either. Around the blue-brown logs, he could see feathers, and paws, and claws, and cloven hoofs, and some feet in shoes. It seemed a circus was going to be his death, or maybe a farmer of a very wide range of animals. That was… a tad humiliating.

More words echoed around their small clearing, these much clearer than the last (Also, those words really shouldn’t have been echoing. It would be different if they were in a cave or even his throne room, but words definitely should not be echoing off of trees and leaves. Guess offending Magic meant that it then had the power to break the laws of science… No wonder Gaius had taken an interest in it.), “You have displeased Emrys. I suggest you run.” The voice seemed dangerous this time, the advice taunting. Whoever ran from this wasn’t getting away easily.

The blob in front of Arthur seemed to take the advice at face value, darting over him and into the surrounding forest, leaving Arthur with a (fairly) clear view of what the blob was running from.

A stampede approached Arthur; he prepared himself to be trampled but the stampede leapt, jumped, flew, and launched themselves over him, in clear pursuit of the blob. Once they had passed in a blur of fur, feathers, scales, and hair, Arthur lifted his head and found himself transfixed on the creature in front of him.

The creature’s back was tensed as it straightened up, as if it were both protecting something and preparing to pounce. It looked like a man, but so many things did sometimes. Its back was to Arthur as debris and dust fell away from it; with a flick of its hand the animals dispersed and after bowing to the beasts, a show of thanks and respect (so similar to how his subjects regarded him), they too left, leaving Arthur alone with it. The clothes it had donned itself in seemed familiar, niggling at the back of his mind, insistent he knew where they from. He swept the thoughts aside in order to focus on the creature turning to face him.

Arthur had to stop himself from gulping down a breath he suddenly felt he needed desperately. The _thing_ in front of him looked like Merlin, down to the last detail. It had the same windswept hair, the same worn clothes, the same elephant ears, the _same stupid neckerchief_. Everything was _perfect_ , save two things. 1) Merlin’s eyes were blue, painfully blue, like a sapphire, not a burning, bright gold, and 2) it’s posture. It was so straight, so confident, so in control something Merlin never was. It gave the creature an air of power that belonged to a lord in Arthur’s court, or even the King himself, rather than some servant (not that Merlin was just any old servant, but that’s not the point). This thing had taken of the form of someone he cared for and that felt like a slap to the face.

It started moving towards him, taking calm, measured steps, a practiced ease in its gait, so different to Merlin’s clumsy, relaxed ambling. He flicked his eyes shut, tilting his head to his chest to avoid looking at this thing that had stolen his friend’s countenance so easily.

It stopped a few paces from him (prompting Arthur to open his eyes), turned away, and gripped the handle of a knife, probably dropped by the blob as it attempted to escape the thing in front of him. This close, Arthur could feel the power radiating off of it; it was old. Even without knowing anything about magic, Arthur knew that. This being was not to be trifled with (Not that Arthur cared. This thing had done something to Merlin; it must have, to look so like him. For that it would pay.).

Arthur watched as it tilted it’s head in confusion (another Merlin thing, damnit) and seemed to study the blade in front of it. Out of nowhere, a strangled whine ripped from its lips, painting Merlin’s features into something of pure rage and agony (a gut-wrenching combination), before making an aborted movement to cast it aside; it stopped and studied it some more, before its face twisted sourly and it tucked the pale knife into a pocket in Merlin’s jacket and turned to face Arthur once more.

His eyes snapped shut again, as he felt its eyes roving over him, probably looking for the easiest way to kill him, or maybe the most painful. A puff of breath was all Arthur heard before it walked away. Perhaps it had decided to merely let him die in peace (unlikely, but a nice thought none the less).

Arthur opened his eyes and saw the thing stumble into the bushes at the side of the road, only to emerge with bandages in one hand and Merlin’s pack in the other. It began to step forward before abruptly halting mid-step. It seemed that this time Arthur had been paying attention to the wrong thing, and looked back up, only to see those golden whirlpools staring back. They looked so shocked, but with a flicker of pain and fear oh so visible underneath it all.

It went to step forwards and, Arthur couldn’t help it, he flinched back. Disbelief welcomed his movement before pain and fear once again took over. Arthur wondered what this powerful being had to fear, perhaps there was a beast behind him he was unaware of, until Arthur fully registered that this mighty creature was looking at _him._ _He_ was the one inspiring this fear in the thing in front of him. How? What could one man do against something that could command animals and beasts with the flick of a hand, or shake of a head? What threat could a _man_ pose against something so obviously powerf- But he wasn’t just a man… He was a king, _the_ King, of a kingdom that was staunchly anti-magic. Maybe it had a reason to fear him (Funnily enough, he wasn’t as satisfied with that as he probably should be).

The things eyes faded to blue, a blue he knew so well, one that he saw every day, one that accompanied him everywhere. The gold faded but the pain, the fear, the _guilt_ , stayed. This was _Merlin_. This powerful, commanding, confident being was _Merlin_. His servant, his advisor, his _friend_ , had magic. No, _was_ Magic. That was what he had said wasn’t it. Not “You have offended me” but “You have offended Magic” Surely that’s what it was.

This wasn’t ideal. Far from it, in fact.

What was he supposed to do? Merlin’s muscles were tensed, and Arthur knew he was in no state to pursue him if he bolted. Merlin had lied to him, betrayed his trust, made a mockery of all that Camelot, all that _Arthur_ , stood for. The punishment for using magic in Camelot was death, they both knew that, one look at the fear on Merlin’s face made that painfully obvious. Why hadn’t Merlin killed him? Why had he protected him? Why was he _still here_?

If Merlin didn’t leave, Arthur would be forced to kill him because he had magic and was evil and if that thought didn’t make Arthur sick, then nothing would; Merlin on the pyre was the stuff of nightmares. He’d be forced to condemn his closest friend to death because he had embraced evil; the evil that had stolen the lives of his mother and father and the sanity of his sister. Maybe he could still save Merlin, rid him of magic’s influence, look out for him like he should have looked out for Morgana. Save him from an eternity of damnation in hell for the use of an evil art.

Magic was evil. His father had always told him that, and Merlin couldn’t be evil. It would be impossible. To let him suffer would be downright cruel. He would help him, save him. And there was nothing on God’s green earth that could stop him, not even Merlin himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... a cliffhanger wasn't exactly what I planned when I wrote this chapter. I was hoping that it would wrap up nice and neatly so I could get something else out, but never works out that way does it?
> 
> I think that there's going to be at least one other chapter, possibly two if I feel it's necessary.
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Hopefully I'll get the next one out soon, and until then feel free to leave me a comment! They make my heart sing and soul shine (and keep my hyperactive muse fed). Thank you all for reading and I'll see you then! TTFN, ta ta for now!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I know the majority of the story is from Merlin's POV, because I thought that would work better, but if anyone's interested, I wouldn't mind writing this from Arthur's POV and showing some of his feelings on the matter. If you're interested, just leave me a comment! Again, thank you so much for reading.
> 
> If you can see any errors, please point the out and I'll be happy to correct them.
> 
> Comments keep me motivated, and with that I'll see you all next time! TTFN, ta ta for now!


End file.
